Starbucks Testing New Algorithm To Keep Mobile Order Pileups From Overwhelming Baristas – CoffeeTalk
Starbucks is testing a new algorithm to help fill mobile orders, preventing them from overwhelming stores and lengthening wait times. The company is experimenting with the algorithm in a few stores to smooth out the rushes of mobile orders that some baristas have complained about. Starbucks will also separate mobile and for-here orders using risers and shelves at the pick-up counter and is developing an option that would allow customers to schedule a time to pick up their order.
Some stores have struggled to fill mobile orders without long wait times, as mobile orders hit stores in real-time, which can lead to a bunch of orders piling up at once and overwhelming staff. Starbucks is tackling “bottleneck situations where the mobile ordering really overwhelms the production experience, to the point where we can no longer provide a great service experience.”
Chairman Brian Niccol said that he wants to improve customer service and make Starbucks stores places where customers want to linger. At Starbucks’ drive-thru lanes, it is easier to space out orders and give partners more time to prepare food and drinks as customers wait in line. By contrast, there is no gating on mobile orders.
Starbucks is using the algorithm in just three stores at the moment, but early results show improvements in financial performance, employee and customer satisfaction. The algorithm sequences mobile orders, allowing the café order to get fulfilled in a timely fashion and with a touch of humanity.
Starbucks has made several changes recently, including requiring visitors to make a purchase to get a free cup of water or use the restroom, reducing promotions for rewards members, reintroducing self-service bars for milk and other condiments, and asking baristas to start writing messages on to-go cups.
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Source: Coffee Talk